Northeast Oklahoma District Church of the Nazarene

Dear NEO family,

Greetings in the name of Jesus, the only God who took upon himself our flesh and our sin, to reconcile us to Himself.

Congratulations to Erin Robinson , Teacher of the Year at Woodlawn Elementary in Sapulpa! Erin is a member of Owasso Silver Creek and makes us all proud.

Marty Crossland, husband of our former office assistant, Vicki Crossland, has accepted a job at Mid-America Nazarene University, starting the first week of January. Marty will hold both a faculty role and the administrative position of Associate Vice President for Technology/Chief Technology Officer. Congratulations, Marty.

Herb and Bertha Carter of Owasso Silver Creek have been picking up food from the Food Bank every Monday for our Manna House Ministry for the past five years. Herb has been diagnosed with melanoma and other issues. We need a driver with a full size pickup to pick up the food on Monday mornings at 10am. Contact Howard Essery if you can help (hveponce32@yahoo.com). And let's pray for Herb and Bertha.

Carrie Wisehart of Family Church had an MRI of a tumor on her ankle on Wednesday. The MRI report showed a strong possibility that the tumor was malignant (cancerous). Surgery is scheduled for Saturday. After the surgery they will test the tumor to finalize any further treatment that may be necessary. Pastor Brady and Carrie write: “Now that is what the human realm knows and is able to do. We know and are strong in our faith that Jehovah Rapha, God our Healer is the one in control. This MRI report give us one more way for God’s healing to be undisputed. We are thankful for this opportunity to be dependent upon God at a new level. We are hungry for God to glorify Himself through this and expecting an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Our prayer is, ‘Lord do whatever it takes to start a revival and outpouring of your spirit in our lives, in our church, community and city.’ Thank you for your prayers! God is Good!”

Tuesday night around 6:30, Howard Poe of the Okmulgee Church went home to be with the Lord. Pastor Cole Weston writes, “Howard was a retired minister of many years, and we request prayer for his family, especially Delores who is our music minister. We are leaning upon God heavily during these times.” The funeral will be Friday at 3pm at the Okmulgee Church of the Nazarene.

Ila Mae Gunter, Pastor Geoff Gunter’ mother, has been flirting with death. Let's keep her in our prayers.

The District web site was attacked months ago and our web master has been overwhelmed with other work and unable to help rebuild it. We are looking for others who could assist us in this project in the next month. Advanced computer skills are needed with an above average understanding of the internet. The package that we use to author the web pages is called Joomla, so someone that has worked with this package in the past would be ideal. Other advanced skill sets what would be helpful but not needed would be - LINUX, PHP, MySQL. Contact me at dmckellips@neonaz.com  with questions or offers of help.

For a good Christmas video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZrf0PbAGSk&feature=player_embedded

The Barna Organization has a helpful summary of cultural trends impacting the church: http://www.barna.org/culture-articles/462-six-megathemes-emerge-from-2010

Nazarenes heed God's call with WEF PLUS giving

The Board of General Superintendents announced earlier this year that in addition to the 2010 Thanksgiving Offering for the World Evangelism Fund (WEF) there would be an additional WEF PLUS offering called Challenge 2010*.

And Nazarenes heeded God's call.

Members of a small Nazarene church in Johannesburg, South Africa, raised $15,000 Rand ($2,164.48 USD) in a Sunday morning offering. Offerings such as Johannesburg's have poured in this month to the Africa Regional Office.

"I am thankful to the local churches and districts that are supporting and encouraging people to give," said Filimao Chambo, regional director for Africa.

Churches have given generously in response to God's grace and mercy, Chambo said.

Thousands of children in the Asia-Pacific Region plan to give 40 coins each to their respective churches for WEF PLUS. Teenagers in that same region promise to spend less each week and give the savings to global ministry.

In South America, the region set a goal of raising $500,000. Regional Director Christian Sarmiento is confident the 250,000 Nazarenes in South America can reach that goal, stating the region had a goal of collecting $50,000 for Haiti relief and for the glory of the Lord they raised $79,000.

Church members in the Mexico and Central America Region plan to give one day's wage above and beyond their normal tithes and offerings, and in Eurasia, churches raised offerings, prayed, and fasted on the message of although the world is in tough economic times, "We know that God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us'" (Ephesians 3:20, NIV).

A similar message inspired a local congregation in Detroit, Michigan, on the USA/Canada Region.

"Here at Detroit First, we have been hard hit by the economic downturn. Yet our people responded to the need for world evangelization and gave over $18,000. Praise the Lord!" Senior Pastor Ron Blake said.

The general treasurer reports churches and missions worldwide gave $563,062.54 from October 1 through December 7 for the WEF Thanksgiving offering. During WEF PLUS, Nazarenes gave $421,751.65 for a total of $984,814.19, more than double the $473,719.33 given in the 2009 WEF Thanksgiving Offering.

The offerings, whether in rand, pesos, yin, or dollars, go beyond monetary value. They represent the denomination's continuous efforts to grow God's Kingdom.

Global Ministry Center statistics show the Church of the Nazarene in 1980 had a total of 7,465 churches and missions worldwide, with an average of one new church starting every 2.5 days. Twenty years later, preliminary figures show the church's membership grew from 674,329 in 1980 to 2,078,107 in 2010, with 26,353 churches and missions and a new church start every 3.4 hours.

"The Board of General Superintendents is most grateful for the response of Nazarenes around the world to the WEF and WEF PLUS offerings," General Superintendent J. K. Warrick said. "Initial reports are most encouraging and we want to thank our good pastors and gracious people for standing with us in these challenging days.

"We pray for God's blessings upon each person as we preach, teach, and model Scriptural holiness in the nations. May the Christ of Christmas fill our hearts with unspeakable joy," Warrick added.

You are loved!

Dave McKellips